Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the Harris County Commissioners Court for allocating more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds to organizations that he claims will use the money to oppose the lawful deportations of illegal aliens.
“We must stop the left-wing radicals who are robbing Texans to prevent illegals from being deported by the Trump Administration,” said Paxton. “Beyond just being blatantly unconstitutional, this is evil and wicked. Millions upon millions of illegals invaded America during the last administration, and they must be sent back to where they came from.”
In a recent 4-1 vote, the Harris County Commissioners Court allocated $1,344,751 in taxpayer funds for distribution to several nongovernmental organizations dedicated to fighting the deportation of illegal aliens.
The funds went to open-border activist groups such as the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, Justice for All Immigrants, Kids in Need of Defense (“KIND”), Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and BakerRipley.
The lawsuit, which was filed last Monday in Harris County District Court, asserts that the expenditures serve no public purpose and instead constitute unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities to subsidize the legal defense of illegal aliens who ought to be deported.
The Texas Constitution prohibits governmental entities like Harris County from misusing public funds by giving gifts or conferring private benefits to individuals and groups that do not serve a legitimate public end.
“These requirements safeguard taxpayer funds by ensuring that local governments spend public money only for legitimate public ends and not to confer private benefits unrelated to their lawful governmental functions,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also names Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and several commissioners as defendants – individuals who apparently must pay for their own legal bills.
“Federal deportation proceedings are civil actions, not criminal prosecutions,” the lawsuit states. “Because these proceedings are civil actions, individuals subject to removal have no constitutional or statutory right to government-appointed counsel. Instead, they may obtain counsel ‘at no expense to the Government.’”
